I'm curious to know ... Can someone tell me if Tenryu is definitively the same plant as nigrescens? I have Tenryu and I'll tell ya, I love this plant. It just keeps getting prettier holding those leaves up in the air and the gigantic flower scapes are just plain cool.

Since I love the look, I was also thinking about nigrescens but I read somewhere that it was the same plant as Tenryu. Then I read somewhere else that they were similar but there was no reference to them being the same. Does anyone know the answer?

Tenryu and/or nigrescens...?

I only have nigrescens, Sue - it is a wonderful plant. I looked up what Mark Zilis says about Tenryu in The Hosta Handbook [listed under nigrescens ] & he says 'a Japanese plant named for the Tenryu River that is the same as or a seedling of H. nigrescens.'

No! T is very upright with cupped leaves with white backs & the flower scapes are definitly not as tall as N! I have both & you can tell just buy looking at them, that they are to distinct different hosta!

renaldo75 wrote:I only have nigrescens, Sue - it is a wonderful plant. I looked up what Mark Zilis says about Tenryu in The Hosta Handbook [listed under nigrescens ] & he says 'a Japanese plant named for the Tenryu River that is the same as or a seedling of H. nigrescens.'

I don't think they are the same. Tenryu grows bigger, looks a bit tougher compared to nigrescens when mature. But both are gorgeous.
Well it's just a guess, my guess.

Yes, Tenryu and Nigrescens are the same plant. I've seen very old, very mature specimens of each side by side and they are identical in every way. Without the tags you would never be able to know which was which.

Now don't confuse these with the plant formerly known as nigrescens Elatior which is now just Hosta 'Elatior'. That is a different beast all its own.

Last edited by Chris_W on May 15, 2007 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have both, and can not tell the difference. My Tenryu is a mere shadow of it's former self this year, a victim of the cold spell. A couple years ago, I lost a huge clump of nigrescens to the same thing. I do have another nigrescens in a different spot. I am 5'9" tall, and most years, the scapes on both plants, nigrescens and Tenryu, are taller than I am. There have been times that they've measured over 7 feet. Perhaps the differences may be cultural conditions? Mine are growing in separate areas of the garden, but I've done a test of taking a leaf from one, having someone put it in the clump of the other, and then trying to figure out which leaf did not grow on that clump. I can't do it with these two plants. They look identical.
So, that's my two cents worth!
Linda P

And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne

If nigrescens is a species (Ben Zonneveld doesn't think so), then perhaps Tenryu may be a seedling of some nigrescens, much in the same way that Elegans is a seedling/seed strain of sieboldiana (and who has any sieboldiana that doesn't look like Elegans these days?).

Not having seen the two side by side, I'll take Chris's word, barring genetic proof.

Elatior and Tenryu originally came from Q & Z. Both are great plants but there is a difference. Tenryu is more blue green and the shape of the leaves is a little different. If we do not get frost tonight I will take pictures tomorrow

I didn't know they were one and the same! You learn something every day, don't you? So thanks for asking that question! I've said it hundreds of times on here that I LOVE nigrescens! What's not to love?

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